(RSF/IFEX) – Munawar Moshin Ali, letters page editor of the English-language daily “Frontier Post”, has been released from prison in Peshawar. On 12 November 2004, the High Court acquitted him of blasphemy charges. In July 2003, Ali was sentenced to life imprisonment for having “intentionally” published a letter in the 29 January 2001 issue of […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Munawar Moshin Ali, letters page editor of the English-language daily “Frontier Post”, has been released from prison in Peshawar. On 12 November 2004, the High Court acquitted him of blasphemy charges.
In July 2003, Ali was sentenced to life imprisonment for having “intentionally” published a letter in the 29 January 2001 issue of the newspaper that the authorities deemed offensive.
Through his lawyers Kamran Arif and Zhoorul Haq, Ali managed to convince the judges that he was unaware of the controversial letter’s contents. The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to demonstrate that the offence was deliberate.
“Now I know what freedom means, after spending nearly four years behind bars,” Ali told an RSF representative as he left prison.
